Free Essay on How Does the Environment Affect Human Behavior

Social behavior issues

The third observation took place on a train. The individuals that caught my interest were a mother and her daughter whom I could easily tell with their nature of communication and the similarity. The family was Caucasian. I estimated the age of the mother to be between thirty-five and forty years old while the daughter was in her adolescents. The girl was busy with her phone while the mother was trying to make conversation with her. The only responses that she was obtaining from her include “yes” “yeah” and “maybe. According to Erikson’s developmental theory, adolescents experience the identity versus role confusion stage. In this stage, teenagers are on the verge of discovering themselves in regards to their personality by analyzing their values, life goals and also beliefs. Most of the teenagers tend to rebel through their journey of fitting whereby they feel that they know better than the rest. They tend to feign conversations from adults and prefer spending more time with their peers due to the similar growth experiences (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Furthermore, others rebel as a coping mechanism for their growth as they feel out of place and uncomfortable with the changes taking place in their bodies. It is at this stage that adolescents try different things regarding communication, fashion, language, and other aspects that make them feel comfortable. It is worth noting that technology tends to be among the current issues affecting the interaction between parents and the children (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). The fact that the mother was trying hard to create a conversation with her daughter while the girl was busy using her phone indicates that there is a problem in regards to technology. Communication is an important process when it comes to building and maintaining a positive parent to child relationship. Therefore, any barrier makes it difficult for a parent to comprehend what his or her child is going through in addition to making a child find it difficult to express themselves. Most adolescents find it easier telling their peers about issues that are affecting them and possibly that is why they spend most of their time on the phone than engaging in actual conversation with their parents or guardians (Schultz & Schultz, 2016).

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Human behavior and social environment

The language used in all observations was English but differed regarding context. In the first observation, the language setting was between a lady and her son. The level of communication was low as the mother was busy on her phone and not paying keen attention to her child. Furthermore, she later engaged in a conversation with a friend such that she failed to notice her son’s desperate need for attention. The only time that she paid attention to him was when he accidentally fell whereby the mother scolded him instead of empathizing with him. Erikson perceives that when children who are three years old experience guilt, they tend to fear to show any initiation with the perspective that they will infuriate their parents. The guilt is what explains the child’s withdrawal from playing with his friends after being scolded. The relationship between the two implies that there is an issue hindering the mother from paying attention to her child; maybe work which makes be on her phone rather than paying attention to her child. In the second observation, the language context was a bit authoritative but full of compromise. The father understood the needs of his children while the children approached him in a disciplined manner. As stated earlier, such type of parenting is perceived to be effective as children acquire discipline and abide by the social norms. The language context in the third observation was a bit void whereby the mother was trying hard to seek to have a conversation with her daughter who appeared to focus on her phone while muttering single words fully; terms such as “yeah,” “okay” and “maybe.” The first and the third observations involved Caucasian families while the second family belonged to the African American community. There was no much difference in language in regards to the ethnic differences but rather in the context in regards to the connection between children and their parents.

In regards to the environment, the nature of the circumstances in the observations appeared to influence the type of interaction among the families. In the first observation, the mother was preoccupied with her phone and her friend who joined her later such that there were destructions that occupied the time she would have used in spending time with her son. Such barriers when they are experienced over time tend to affect children when it comes to associating with their parents. In the second observation, it was quite difficult to tell the influence of the environment in regards to the relation between the parent and his children due to his authoritative nature and the rapport that existed between them. In the third observation, the aspect in the environment that interfered with the relation between the lady and her daughter was the daughter’s focus on her phone rather than what her mother was saying to her. Furthermore, one couldn’t tell whether the mother wanted to overreact and scold the daughter on the neglecting as we were in a train full of people. However, one could say that she was annoyed in the manner in which she stared at her daughter’s phone. What upset me the most was the first observation whereby I found it awkward for a mother to neglect her son despite taking him to the park to play. What surprised me the most was the actual proof of authoritative parenting whereby, despite the father, in the second observation, authoritative nature, he was able to relate well with his children and thus showing the effectiveness of authoritative parenthood.

The entire observation was a naturalistic study and hence an interesting section of the learning process. From a personal viewpoint, relating what is learned in class to the actual environment adds more relevance to the associated learning objectives. The whole experience was informative in regards to the various relations that exist in our society. I was able to apply and relate the knowledge learned in class in the activity and hence a good strategy for practical experience. Therefore, linking the knowledge learned in class to practical situations was the most significant piece of knowledge I gained from the whole experience.

References

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 91–97.

Chambers, D. (2015). A sociology of Family Life. New York: Cengage Learning.

Hutchison, E.D. (2014). Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course, 5th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Chapter 3 and 5.

Hutchinson, D. L. (2015). Continually Reminded of Teir Inferior Position: Social Dominance, Implicit Bias, Criminality, and Race. Journal of Law & Policy, 23-30.

Hutchinson, E. (2014). Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment. 5Th Edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Chapters 4,5,7,10.

Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2016). Theories of Personality. New York: Cengage Learning.